LINCOLN, Neb. — The only aspect of the future that Riley Reiff knows for sure is that Iowa has one more football game.

“We’ll be in a bowl game, and that’s what we’re looking toward right now,” the Iowa offensive left tackle said after Friday’s 20-7 loss at 22nd-ranked Nebraska.

Whether it’s his final game as a Hawkeye — that will be the team’s biggest question until the junior announces whether he’s returning for a final college season or declaring for the NFL draft.

Are you coming back next season?

“Yes,” he said after Iowa finished the regular season with records of 7-5 overall for the second season in a row and 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference. “Yes. Yep.”

So it’s official, you’re coming back?

“I don’t know yet,” he then conceded. “I need some time to think about it.”

Therefore, this much is known:

Reiff will either play his final game as a Hawkeye, or continue it in a bowl game that will be learned Dec. 4 — if not earlier.

“Everybody involved would love for it to be done sooner than (Dec. 4),” athletic director Gary Barta said before Friday’s game. “The delay is whether one of our (Big Ten Conference) schools has a chance to get a second BCS bid. If that’s a possibility, then we have to wait.”

The winner of Saturday’s Big Ten Conference championship game advances to the Rose Bowl, one of five BCS bowls that will announce pairings on Dec. 4. The other 30 bowls then select teams, and that’s where the process gets tricky.

If the Big Ten Conference has an at-large BCS participant, too, which is possible after both Michigan and Michigan State won Saturday, then that likely means picks by the Capital One, Outback, Insight, Gator, Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, TicketCity and Little Caesars bowls won’t happen until Dec. 4.

About Randy Peterson: Randy Peterson covers college football, college basketball and the Iowa Cubs for the Des Moines Register. Randy can be reached at randypeterson@dmreg.com or on Twitter via @RandyPete View author profile.